There are a lot of things to consider when flying your drone: weather conditions, flight path management, flying legality, drone insurance needs and more! The good thing is, there are a lot of platforms and applications available that can take some of the burden off of you! We looked around - here is our list of the top 5 you should know about:

(1) Hover One of the simplest, yet most useful apps on the market – great for any flyer, beginner to novice. To fly you need two things: (1) a location to fly and (2) permit-table weather. Hover quickly shows you no-fly zones in your area PLUS weather conditions including: wind speed and direction, temperature and sunset/sunrise times.

(2)B4UFLYCreated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), B4UFLY allows users the ability to quickly check where they can legally fly AND whether a planned route is legal. With interactive maps and filtering options, the user experience is easy to navigate.

(3) Autopilot With Autopilot, you can fly like a professional. Autopilot enables you to execute flight and camera control sequences that have previously been too difficult to perform manually. It provides new methods to move the camera – allowing for a more natural-looking cinematic shot. It is compatible with many DJI drones including: Inspire series, Mavic series, Phantom series, Spark series and Matrice series.

(4) Verifly Need insurance on-demand? Verifly is a go-to option that offers on-demand drone insurance – starting at $10 per hour. The process is pretty simple – you tell Verifly where you plan to fly and they provide an estimate for drone insurance. Verifly provides immediate proof of insurance.

BONUS professional/commercial platforms:

(6) DroneDeployOne of the top mapping and modeling solutions on the market today – DroneDeploy is a full-featured aerial information platform (plus mobile app) that enables drone operations at scale. DroneDeploy is customized for all business sizes, from small to large, and is compatible with numerous industries including: construction, surveying, agriculture and mining.

(7) SkywardSkyward is one of the most popular commercial drone management platforms on the market today. Skyward can help you gain comprehensive oversight by planning flight operations, tracking and analyzing flight data, accessing controlled airspace and managing drone teams.